STALKING IN L.A.

This article is available to subscribers only, in our archive viewer. Get immediate access to this article for just $1 a week by
subscribing now.

This article is available to subscribers only, in our archive viewer. Get immediate access to this article for just $1 a week by
subscribing now.

ANNALS OF LAW about the problem of stalking, especially in Los Angeles... Ten years ago, when a neighbor asked a woman, "Mary", if he could help her move her trash cans back from the curb after a garbage pickup, she thought he was merely making a friendly gesture. A well-educated, upper-middle-class woman, Mary was eventually forced to sell her business and move; her stalker was jailed for insulting a judge. "He was never sentenced for anything he did to me," Mary said bitterly.... To this day, before she leaves her house she looks out the window to see if the stalker is waiting outside and watching for her... In recent years, few subjects in law enforcement have received more attention from the news media and from legislators than stalking. Stories about the stalking of celebrities such as Madonna and David Letterman and of ordinary women like Mary are television mainstays, and the federal government and every state have passed laws that define the act of stalking as a crime. As the center of the entertainment industry, Los Angeles set out to establish a national model for confronting the problem with the creation of the Threat Management Unit, which arrests stalkers whenever possible, for violating restraining orders.... The T.M.U. owes its existence to two notorious incidents in Los Angeles; the stabbing of actress Theresa Saldana by an obsessed fan, and the fatal shooting of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, seven years later.... Writer interviews Gavin de Becker, a private security consultant who advises clients on stalkers, John Lane, who runs the L.A.P.D.'s T.M.U., and Park Dietz, who also runs a consulting business... Tells about one woman who was stalked by another; the second woman was arrested after she burst into her victim's house with a gun, and was later discovered to have made a little bed-nest in a crawl space under the house... Dietz believes restraining orders do little good... Such views are nonsense, according to Michael Zona, who unequivocally endorses Lane's methods. A skilled medical entrepreneur, Zona now manages a practice of eighteen psychiatrists and conducts a small private practice of his own. Lane intends to retire from the L.A.P.D. in July, and join Zona in forming a private threat-management business--a direct competitor to de Becker's and Dietz's operations... The Los Angeles stalking debate comes down to de Becker and Dietz on one side and Zona and Lane on the other... Lane cited Mary as a victory for restraining orders and enforcement of the law, but she survived her ordeal chiefly by using the strategy favored by Lane's rivals, de Becker and Dietz... "A friend of mine said I shouldn't ever consider myself safe until I see a death certificate for this guy," Mary said. "I think my friend's right."